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R
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SQL
C++
C

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Made with the R package pagedown.

The source code is available on github.com/nstrayer/cv.

Last updated on 2022-01-09.

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Taylor Dunn

I have made visualizations viewed by hundreds of thousands of people, sped up query times for 25 terabytes of data by an average of 4,800 times, and built packages for R that let you do magic.

Education

M.Sc., Physics

Dalhousie University

Halifax, NS

2016 - 2014

  • Thesis: Image Segmentation and Modelling of Host-Pathogen Dynamcis of Salmonella. Full text.

B.Sc., Physics, Honours (minor Mathematics)

University of Prince Edward Island

Charlottetown, PE

2014 - 2009

  • Thesis: Studying Polymer Translocation with Dissipative Particle Dynamics and Monte Carlo Simulations. Full text.

Experience

Biostatistician

Ardea Outcomes

Halifax, NS

current - 2017

  • Worked on global clinical trials and patient-centered research across multiple disease areas.
  • Assisted in study design, including the development of study protocols, statistical analysis plans, and data management plans.
  • Performed data collection, analysis, reporting, and interpretation. Aided in database maintenance and monitoring.
  • Conducted research in patient-centric outcomes, resulting in several peer-reviewed publications and presentations for scientific meetings and industry clients.
  • Led internal project management to ensure tasks are completed according to timelines. Communicated professionally with external stakeholders throughout projects.
  • Developed internal R software for effective, reproducible, and well-documented workflows.

Teaching Assistant

Dalhousie University, Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science

Halifax, NS

2015 - 2014

  • Course: Introduction to Numerical Programming.
  • Aided undergraduate Physics students in exploring and modelling physical systems in Python.
  • Ran weekly tutorial sessions and marked assignments.
  • Gave lectures when the professor was absent.

Undergraduate Researcher

University of Prince Edward Island, Department of Physics

Charlottetown, PE

2014 - 2011

  • Worked in a computational physics lab under supervision of a senior faculty member.
  • Developed software in C and C++ to simulate molecules and perform data analysis.
  • Presented results in various settings and formats (posters, presentations, papers).

Help Centre Tutor

University of Prince Edward Island

Charlottetown, PE

2014 - 2011

  • Ran weekly tutorial sessions where students would come for assistance in various subjects (physics, calculus, statistics, etc.).

Laboratory/Teaching Assistant

University of Prince Edward Island

Charlottetown, PE

2012 - 2010

  • Assisted with student instruction, equipment setup and marking of undergraduate physics labs.




Selected Data Science Writing

I regularly blog about data science and visualization on my blog LiveFreeOrDichotomize.

Using AWK and R to Parse 25tb

LiveFreeOrDichotomize.com

N/A

2019

  • Story of parsing large amounts of genomics data.
  • Provided advice for dealing with data much larger than disk.
  • Reached top of HackerNews.

The United States of Seasons

LiveFreeOrDichotomize.com

N/A

2018

  • GIS analysis of weather data to find the most ‘seasonal’ locations in United States
  • Used Bayesian regression methods for smoothing sparse geospatial data.

A year as told by fitbit

LiveFreeOrDichotomize.com

N/A

2017

  • Analyzing a full years worth of second-level heart rate data from wearable device.
  • Demonstrated visualization-based inference for large data.

MCMC and the case of the spilled seeds

LiveFreeOrDichotomize.com

N/A

2017

  • Full Bayesian MCMC sampler running in your browser.
  • Coded from scratch in vanilla Javascript.

The Traveling Metallurgist

LiveFreeOrDichotomize.com

N/A

2017

  • Pure javascript implementation of traveling salesman solution using simulated annealing.
  • Allows reader to customize the number and location of cities to attempt to trick the algorithm.



Selected Publications

Building a software package in tandem with machine learning methods research can result in both more rigorous code and more rigorous research

ENAR 2020

N/A

2020

  • Invited talk in Human Data Interaction section.
  • How and why building an R package can benefit methodological research

Stochastic Block Modeling in R, Statistically rigorous clustering with rigorous code

RStudio::conf 2020

N/A

2020

  • Invited talk about new sbmR package.
  • Focus on how software development and methodological research can improve both benefit when done in tandem.

PheWAS-ME: A web-app for interactive exploration of multimorbidity patterns in PheWAS

Bioinformatics

N/A

2020

  • Manuscript detailing application for the exploration of multimorbidity patterns in PheWAS analyses
  • See landing page for more information.

The Symptoms Targeted for Monitoring in a Web-Based Tracking Tool by Caregivers of People With Dementia and Agitation: Cross-Sectional Study

Journal of Medical Internet Research

N/A

2019

  • Authors: Rockwood, K., Sanon Aigbogun, M., Stanley, J., Wong, H., Dunn, T., Chapman, C. A. T., Howlett, S. E., Miguelez, M., McGarrigle, L., & Baker, R. A.

Charge Reductions Associated with Shortening Time to Recovery in Septic Shock

Chest

N/A

2019 - 2019

  • Authored with Wesley H. Self, MD MPH; Dandan Liu, PhD; Stephan Russ, MD, MPH; Michael J. Ward, MD, PhD, MBA; Nathan I. Shapiro, MD, MPH; Todd W. Rice, MD, MSc; Matthew W. Semler, MD, MSc.

Multimorbidity Explorer | A shiny app for exploring EHR and biobank data

RStudio::conf 2019

N/A

2019 - 2019

  • Contributed Poster. Authored with Yaomin Xu.

Taking a network view of EHR and Biobank data to find explainable multivariate patterns

Vanderbilt Biostatistics Seminar Series

N/A

2019 - 2019

  • University wide seminar series.

Patient-specific risk factors independently influence survival in Myelodysplastic Syndromes in an unbiased review of EHR records

Under-Review (copy available upon request.)

N/A

2019

  • Bayesian network analysis used to find novel subgroups of patients with Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS).
  • Analysis done using method built for my dissertation.

Patient specific comorbidities impact overall survival in myelofibrosis

Under-Review (copy available upon request.)

N/A

2019

  • Bayesian network analysis used to find robust novel subgroups of patients with given genetic mutations.
  • Analysis done using method built for my dissertation.

R timelineViz: Visualizing the distribution of study events in longitudinal studies

Under-Review (copy available upon request.)

N/A

2018 - 2018

  • Authored with Alex Sunderman of the Vanderbilt Department of Epidemiology.

Continuous Classification using Deep Neural Networks

Vanderbilt Biostatistics Qualification Exam

N/A

2017 - 2017

  • Review of methods for classifying continuous data streams using neural networks
  • Successfully met qualifying examination standards

Declines of Mysis diluviana in the Great Lakes

Journal of Great Lakes Research

N/A

2015 - 2015

  • Authored with Peter Euclide and Jason Stockwell.

Evaluating the Applicability of the Fokker-Planck Equation in Polymer Translocation: A Brownian Dynamics Study.

Journal of Chemical Physics

N/A

2014

  • Authors: James Polson and Taylor Dunn. PDF.

Selected Posters, and Presentations

Conformational correlation times for a tethered polymer

UPEI Science Undergraduate Research Conference

University of Prince Edward Island

2011